[...] For a few days, then, Alberto and Mimi tried to ignore their new neighbours. When the neighbours went out for a walk, Alberto and Mimi didn’t say hello to them. When the neighbours were in their garden, Alberto and Mimi went inside. This was ok for a few days, but, perhaps inevitably, things didn’t stay this way …

One day Alberto woke up from his sleep to find one of the neighbours in his garden. “Mimi!” he shouted. ’Have you seen this!? He’s in our garden!!!! Look!’

‘How terrible” said Mimi. ‘Let’s call our staff and make sure they get rid of him immediately!’

Mimi went off to call their staff. Two minutes later Alberto and Mimi’s head of staff was out in the garden trying to get rid of the unwelcome neighbour. ‘Go on!’ he shouted. ‘Get out of here! Go home!’ The neighbour didn’t say anything, but gave Alberto and Mimi’s head of staff a dirty look, then he went back into his garden. Alberto and Mimi felt better, and then asked their head of staff to prepare their lunch for them.

However, it wasn’t enough. Over the next few days Alberto and Mimi often found one or other or both of their new neighbours walking around their own garden. It was terrible. To show how they felt, Alberto and Mimi went into their neighbours’ garden, at night, when the neighbours were inside, and broke all the flowers.

The next morning one of the neighbours came to talk to Alberto.

‘Hey!’ he said. ‘Hey you!’ Alberto ignored him, but he continued talking. ‘You came into our garden last night and broke all the flowers!’ Alberto didn’t say anything, but gave his neighbour a dirty look. ‘Now I’m in trouble! continued his neighbour. They think I did it!’

‘Who are ‘they’?’ asked Alberto.

‘My owners, of course … ‘replied the neighbour.

‘Owners !!???’ said Alberto. ‘You have ‘owners’?’

‘Course we do’ said his neighbour. ‘Don’t you?’

‘Oh no’ replied Alberto. ‘We have staff.’

Alberto went to tell Mimi that the neighbours didn’t have staff, but they had owners.

‘That’s not a surprise’ said Mimi. ‘That explains everything. That’s why they’re so noisy and smelly and stupid. We need to make their «owners» become «staff.

The next day, Alberto and Mimi were actually very friendly with their new neighbours. They tried to explain how to make their owners become «staff.»

‘Listen’ said Alberto to them. ‘It’s very easy. First, understand that the house is your house, not theirs … ‘

‘And second’ said Mimi, ‘make sure that you are always clean.’

‘Make sure they give you food whenever you want!’

‘Sit on the newspaper while they are reading it!’

‘Sleep as much as possible – on their beds!’

‘And finally, try not to bark, but to miaow instead.’

But it was no good. The neighbours just didn’t understand. After a week, they gave up.

‘It’s no good’ said Mimi. ‘They’ll never understand – dogs have owners, cats have staff.’

Текст №2

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[...] Everybody thinks identical twins are, well, identical. But if you’re a twin you’ll know that it’s not true. Physically, yes, we were almost identical. I say almost, because there was the birthmark. My sister has a very small brown spot on her left shoulder. I don’t. This was the only way we could ever be told apart.

But other than that, twins, even identical ones, are different inside. I think we started to change when we started school. I was always very good. I never got into trouble, I always did all of my homework and did very well in all the tests and exams. Evie wasn’t like that. Evie was always getting into trouble. Evie never did her homework. Evie was a really bad student who never studied and never learned anything. She would have failed her exams – but of course she didn’t. Why? Well, it’s simple, isn’t it?

If you have an identical twin, how do you know which is which?

Evie, of course, started by copying my homework. Then she got worse. When there was a class test she would write my name on her paper. When she got into trouble, she smiled beautifully at the teacher and said “No, I’m Edie, I’m the good one, it was my twin sister Evie who was naughty!”

They never took us seriously, we were only small children after all, there was no harm in being a bit naughty. Everyone used to laugh. And because they never really knew who was who, neither of us was ever punished for being naughty, and they never failed either of us in our exams, because they couldn’t be sure which one to fail and which one to pass.

But as we got older, it got worse. Evie started to steal things. At first it was only things from other children, sweets or pens or pencils or rubbers, the kind of things that sometimes happen in school. But when we were 15, some money was taken from a teacher’s bag. It was quite a lot of money, and the situation was serious. Then they found the money in Evie’s pocket. And what did Evie do? Well, of course, she did the same thing she always did. “No, it wasn’t me. It was my twin sister.” And I got into trouble, serious trouble this time. They called the police. They tried to expel me from school. It was only when our parents came in and pleaded with the headteacher that they agreed to drop the charges and say nothing about it. We were lucky that time.

But the trouble didn’t stop there. Evie was always playing truant, not going to school. Then when she came in again, she accused me of lying. She said that she was Edie, and that I had given the teachers the wrong name when they called the register. I thought about telling everyone about the birthmark on her shoulder, that they should check the birthmark to make sure who was who. That would solve the problem. I don’t know why I didn’t. Identical twins are always very close, and even though I knew she was bad, I didn’t want to get her into trouble. Perhaps also because I knew that trouble for her also meant trouble for me. [...]

Текст №3

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At the top of an old brick house in New York two young painters Sue and Johnsy had their studio. They had met in a cheap restaurant and soon discovered that though their characters differed, their views on life and art were the same. Some time later they found a room that was suitable for a studio and began to live even more economically than before.

That was in May. In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, went from place to place in the district where they lived, touching people here and there with his icy fingers. Mr Pneumonia was not what you would call a kind old gentleman. It was hardly fair of him to pick out a little woman like Johnsy who was obviously unfit to stand the strain of the suffering, but he did, and she lay on her narrow bed, with no strength to move, looking at the next brick house.

After examining Johnsy one morning the doctor called Sue out of the room and gave her a prescription, saying: «I don’t want to frighten you, but at present she has one chance in, let us say, ten, and that chance is for her to want to live. But your little lady has made up her mind that she isn’t going to get well, and if a patient loses interest in life, it takes away 50 per cent from the power of medicine. If you could somehow get her to ask one question about the new winter styles in hats, I would promise you a one-in-five chance for her.»

After the doctor had gone, Sue went out into the hall and cried. As soon as she could manage to check her tears, she walked gaily back into the room, whistling a merry tune. Johnsy lay with her eyes towards the window. Thinking that Johnsy was asleep, Sue stopped whistling. She arranged her drawing board and began working. Soon she heard a low sound, several time repeated. She went quickly to the bedside. Johnsy’s eyes were wide open. She was looking out of the window and counting — counting backward. «Twelve,» she said, and a little later, «eleven;» then «ten» and «nine», and then «eight» and «seven» almost together.

Sue looked out of the window. What was there to count? There was only the blank side of the brick house twenty feet away. An old grape-vine climbed half way up the brick wall The cold autumn winds had blown off its leaves until it was almost bare.

«What is it, dear?» asked Sue.

«Six,» said Johnsy almost in a whisper. «They’re falling faster now, I can hardly keep up with them. There goes another one. There are only five left now.»

«Five what, darling? Tell me.»

«Leaves. On the grape-vine. When the last one goes, I must go, too. I’ve known that for three days. Didn’t the doctor tell you?»

«How can the doctor have told me this nonsense?» Sue said, trying to control her voice. «He told me this morning your chances were ten to one. Anyhow, let me finish my drawing so that I can sell it and buy some port wine for you.»

«You needn’t buy any more wine,» said Johnsy with her eyes still on the window. «There goes another. That leaves just four. I want to see the last one fall before it gets dark. Then I’ll go, too.» [...]